You may recall the Panthers signed S Gerald Alexander earlier this week after both back-up safeties Jordan Pugh and Marcus Hudson were injured against the Ravens.Alexander is a 4th year player, 26, 6'2" 209 lbs.
Here's the basics on Alexander's history in the NFL:
He was selected from Boise State in the 2nd round of the 2007 NFL Draft as the 61st overall selection. He was one of the players who helped lead Boise State to their improbable Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma.
Gerald played all 16 games of his rookie season when safety Daniel Bullocks suffered a season-ending knee injury during a preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts. During that 2007 season Gerald recorded 81 tackles, 59 solo and 22 assisted. He also had 2 sacks, interceptions and fumble recoveries.
On June 26th 2009. He was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars, for Dennis Northcutt.
He played 3 games for the Jags this season before getting cut. I put up a post over at Big Cat Country to get some feedback on why he was released. I've pasted the choice comments after the jump.
Overall, he’s a run of the mill NFL safety. He’s better as pass coverage than he is at run stopping, but he’s not great at either.
He was penciled in as one of the Jaguars starting safeties, but was cut after a terrible preseason, brought back, and cut again. He’s certainly not Reggie Nelson, so he has that going for him.
I don’t recall him playing special teams.
The Jags fans obviously disliked Reggie Nelson. What's funny to me is Nelson was actually my first CSR Mock Draft pick
Another couple comments:
And he’s ok, he a hard hitting safety, seen it twice where he hits him when the ball gets caught, ball flys and we pick it.
he's a play maker...and usually he makes em in bunches, but he misses tackles. He’s slow in coverage, and sometimes he gets out of position. He was an amiable guy, but he didn’t perform up to standards on the field.
He has a good amount of experience compared to the rest of the secondary. I like the 'play-maker' tag but he doesn't appear to be a special teamer. Let's see who plays gunner this weekend.
It'll be interesting to see if he sticks after Pugh and/or Hudson get better.The way we've been making roster moves on a weekly basis he'll be lucky to stay past next Tuesday.